Yan Zhang starts work when most photographers put their cameras away. Rather than rely on the sun, Zhang uses moonlight, starlight and the frail beams from climbers’ headlamps to illuminate his landscapes, capturing a rare and ghostly vision of our high places.

webversion | unsubscribe | update profile

By the light of the moon and stars

Heads in the clouds

How can the sensitive tissues of a plant withstand the brutal conditions of the mountains? Unlikely as it may seem, many fascinating plants not only survive but flourish amid the shifting screes and windswept gullies far above the treeline. Alpine plants are among the special treasures the mountains offer those who venture among them.

Chancellor Hut

One of the most important historic buildings in the New Zealand mountains.

First ascents

The Darran Mountains lie deep in northern Fiordland—a land of extremes, with the country’s most remote summits and the longest, hardest-to-climb alpine rock walls.

The Kiwi bushman

Josh James reinvents adventure and manhood on the West Coast, with the world watching.

The also wren

In the South Island’s remote subalpine regions, a highly terrestrial songbird—one of two surviving species of New Zealand wren—has hopped, chirped and flown in the face of extinction.

Visit Niue from your armchair...

New Zealand Geographic's NZVR Project lets you travel through New Zealand's wild places using virtual reality on any phone, tablet or desktop computer. Glide with stingrays at the Poor Knights, swim through swaying sargassum weed at the Three Kings, dive with pilot whales off the edge of the continental shelf, explore the shallows of Parengarenga Harbour, experience the charms and challenges of the Hauraki Gulf... even swim with humpback whales in Niue!

Production was funded by Foundation North's Gulf Innovation Fund Together (GIFT), NZonAir and supported by partners WWF and Sir Peter Blake Trust.


	#NZGeoRadio

COUNCIL SHOULD HAVE COME CLEAN ON SPILL
The New Plymouth mayor has admitted his council should have been more transparent about a massive 1.5 million litre sewage spill into one of the city’s streams.

SEA LEVEL RISE THREATENS INFRASTRUCTURE
Rising seas are threatening $8 billion worth of New Zealand’s roads, pipes, and other infrastructure.

HOW DOES PLASTIC GET INTO OUR WATERWAYS?
A NIWA scientist has embarked on a first-of-its-kind study to track down sources of the plastic that ends up in New Zealand waterways.